Cordial Glass
1865–70
Medium
Pressed glass
Dimensions
H. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)
Classification
Cordial glass
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Emily Winthrop Miles, 1946
Accession Number
46.140.871
Art Historical Context
This delicate cordial glass, crafted by the New England Glass Company 1865 and 1870, exemplifies the ingenuity of American glassmaking during the post-Civil War industrial boom. Standing just 3¼ inches tall, it was designed for serving small measures of sweetened liqueurs, a popular after-dinner ritual in Victorian households. Produced in Cambridge, Massachusetts—one of the era's leading glass centers—the company pioneered techniques that brought elegant tableware within reach of the growing middle class. The medium, pressed glass, was revolutionary: molten glass was forced into intricate met...
About the Artist
New England Glass Company · 1818–1888
**The New England Glass Company: Pioneers of American Flint Glass** The New England Glass Company was established on February 16, 1818, in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a quartet of prominent local businessmen: Amos Binney, Edmund Munroe, Daniel Hastings, and Deming Jarves. Jarves, drawing on his dry goods background and talent for recruiting Europe's finest cutters, served as operational man...